04 February 2008

Larry Boy! & the Bad (ass) Apple

My Friend is an artist and teaches several classes of children various forms of art, in a variety of formats.  She has taught small classes out of her home, holds a several day camp focused on art every summer, teaches homeschoolers at the local family first resource center, and now teaches at a few church-schools in a neighboring town.

Friend, herself, specializes in pencil drawings that she sometimes will do from photos that she has taken.  She does a fair amount of commissioned pieces and is in demand for portraits around Christmas, Valentine's, and graduations.  She also conducts several art showings at the public library and around town.  She stays busy.

Her daughter, Eight, has always drawn.  I admire her abilities and her creativity.  She is an amazing kid in many ways, and is an artist in her own right.  Years ago, when she was Five, I was sitting with her in a pew at church (while her father preached and her mother was in the restroom, nursing Three who was NewBorn at that time).  I was watching her draw Jesus on the Cross.  Now, there was such a figure hanging behind the pulpit, but! but she was drawing it from the left side perspective, then drew it from the right side perspective in another corner, and then drew it as though she were viewing it from behind.  I was blown away, because children's brains (at that age) are usually not developed so that they can view things from other perspectives than what they are physically seeing.  Kids are so cool!

So last week, Three and Eight were down with the flu.  And they watched Veggie Tales ad nauseum.  One of the movies was the subject of this drawing, Larry Boy and the Bad Apple.  Eight had seen the movie, and drew this entirely from her own imagination.  She didn't trace it from the box, and there was not a still shot (or any section of the movie to create the still shot) of this setting.  I thought it was pretty good when she first showed it to me, but when my Friend (her mom) said that she doesn't even have that ability, that she must go from a photo...well, then I realized exactly how awesome that is!

Following Russ's (thanks, Russ!!) sharing, posting, and featuring youngsters' work, I want to feature Eight's stuff.  So I asked Friend tonight if I could post it online, she agreed.  So here is the awesomeness:

3 comments:

Thanks for taking the time and effort to let your thoughts be known!